The present application is directed to controlling lights on a vehicle, and more particularly, to controlling the lights on a vehicle in a manner to clearly indicate to a viewer the operation of the vehicle.
Motor vehicles use external lights to indicate operational aspects of the vehicles to other drivers and pedestrians. The external lights include rear lights to indicate to others that are behind the vehicle the various vehicle operations such as running, braking, and turning.
A typical set of rear lights includes a central light to indicate running and braking. The central light may be illuminated at a first intensity when the vehicle is in a run state. The central light may further be illuminated at an increased intensity during vehicle braking. The rear lights also include a pair of turn lights. A left turn light physically positioned to the left of the central light is illuminated in a flashing pattern to indicate a left-hand turn. A right turn light physically positioned to the right of the central light is illuminated in the flashing pattern to indicate a right-hand turn.
Controllers are available to increase the functionality of the vehicle lighting system. These controllers may convert the two rear turn lights to also be illuminated with the central light during vehicle braking and running. This results in three running and braking lights, instead of just the single central light. The increased number of lights to indicate vehicle running and braking is a major safety improvement. The controllers may also be configured to display specialty display patterns on the lights during specific vehicle operations. For example, the controllers may display a flashing or strobe pattern on each of the three lights when the vehicle is braking.
A drawback of existing controllers that use the three lights together as a unit is that the lights may be displayed in a confusing manner when the vehicle performs multiple operations. A viewer following the vehicle may be uncertain whether the vehicle is braking, turning, both, or neither.
Further, the three lights may be different. For example, one or more of the lights may include incandescent bulbs with the remaining lights including light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs. Even through each of the lights is controlled in a common manner, different types of light sources will illuminate at different intensities. This may cause the visual impression that different vehicle operations are occurring. Existing controllers may provide for using a combination of lights during a single vehicle operation, but do not provide for adjusting the intensities to give a common visual appearance.
Thus, there is a need for a lighting system that utilizes different lights to signal a vehicle operation. The different lights should be displayed in a manner that provides a clear indication to a viewer of the vehicle operation.